It is undoubtedly believed that countless believers have not come to realize how much, in terms of spiritual enablement; that they carry on their inside. Whether we like it or not, believers are the most powerful set of people that you can ever come across anywhere on the face of the earth. Going by Moses writings, a single believer alone is capable of putting to flight a thousand (Deuteronomy 32:30), that is how powerful a single believer, standing alone, is. The reason this is possible is because the Holy Spirit has put inside of us all that we would ever require for life and godliness and in this piece, I want to briefly share with us how we can fast track our spiritual growth with our God-given spiritual gifts.

We will be reading about three Bible passages which would form the basis of everything I am going to be sharing with us and they are: 1 Peter 4:10-11, Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:7-11. Beginning from 1 Peter 4:10-11, the Bible says: “As each one has received a gift…” The keyword in that phrase is ‘gift’ and so, the starting point is to define what a gift is, because that is the subject of our consideration in this piece and we are going to be looking at three definitions/meaning and context in which we could define the word ‘gift’.

The first one Is this: a gift is anything that is given to someone willingly without payment. This context talks about receiving any tangible, physical material based on the giver’s benevolence. So, if I say “Mr. ‘A’, here is my phone, you can begin to use it and enjoy it as your own from now henceforth.” That means the ownership of that phone has changed and Mr. ‘A’ now begins to enjoy the phone as his. Do we understand?

The second one is this: a gift is a natural ability or talent. This talks about certain things that you discover that you could do, and that you didn’t have to learn it from somewhere else before you could them. They are just innate to you. An example is in Exodus 31:1-6. The Bible says:

“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ² “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. ³ And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, ⁴ to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, ⁵ in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. ⁶ “And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you.”

So, from here, we could see that Bezalel and Aholiab didn’t have to go and learn some of these things before they could put them to work in the building of the tabernacle. As Moses relays the information to them as to what God has instructed him to do, they simply go ahead and make it happen.

The third one is this, and this has so much to do with what we are looking at in today’s meeting. A gift is a supernatural endowment or empowerment given by the Holy Spirit to everyone that believes so that each one can contribute his or her quota in the growth and development of the body of Christ. We all, as believers, have a responsibility to fulfill in the kingdom of God. We have been saved so that we can find our place in the kingdom and then fulfill our responsibilities in the kingdom of God.

Let us go back to our text:

“As each one has received a gift…” Another understanding we must also have from here is that each one of us has received at least a gift. There is no one that is lacking, we all have at least one of the numerous that is available. It says: minister it to one another [in other words, we are meant to serve with our gift and not hoard it], as good stewards of the manifold grace of God [WE ARE STEWARDS OF GOD’S GIFT AND WE ARE MEANT TO USE IT FAITHFULLY (1 CORINTHIANS 4:2)]. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

1 Peter 4:10-11

So, from the above, we can see that SPEAKING is a gift of God or better put, your gifting could be manifested through speaking. We also see that MINISTERING is a gift and it is done through the ability that God supplies.

Let us go to Romans 12:6-8

“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them…” So, from here, we can simply deduce that we have been gifted differently. There is absolutely nothing wrong in you manifesting your own gift and I also am manifesting my own giftings. The most important thing here is that we are both using our giftings and not hoarding it.

It reads further:

if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; ⁷ or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; ⁸ he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

Romans 12:6-8

So, from here, we could see that PROPHESYING is a gift that the Holy Spirit makes operational in our lives. Prophecies are inspired utterances that you make by the Holy Spirit in a language that the hearer understands. Prophecies are not just words that you conjure together and say in order to make the hearers feel good, they are words that the Holy Spirit Himself puts in your mouth to speak. Ezekiel 37:1-10 gives us an example. It says:

“The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. ² Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed, they were very dry. ³ And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So, I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” ⁴ Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. ⁶ I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.”’” ⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them. ⁹ Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

So, from here, we discover that everything that prophet Ezekiel spoke to the dry bones were utterances inspired by the Spirit of the Lord and not from Himself. So, you don’t open your mouth to prophesy if the Spirit of the Lord hasn’t commanded you to prophesy, it would only tantamount to nothing.

Another example, Numbers 11:25. It says:

“Then the LORD came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied, although they never did so again.”

So, from here, we could see that the Spirit of the LORD was upon Moses, and the LORD took a portion of that Spirit of His and placed on the seventy elders and the moment the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. Even though they never did again, but they prophesied the moment that Spirit came upon them, to show us that prophecies are Holy Spirit inspired.

Another example, 2 Peter 1:20. It says:

“For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” So, the gift of prophesy is what we operate in by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Another thing from that Romans 12:6 that is important to talk about is prophesying in proportion to our faith. So, each one of us can prophesy in proportion to our faith. The word of prophecy would not carry so much weight if we don’t speak it by faith. For example, the Holy Spirit is putting words in your mouth to declare it but you are afraid to say it simply because you feel your faith may not be able to bear it, what you are doing is shooting yourself in the legs. You would have successfully robbed the people off of the blessings that that prophesy carries. So, we must learn to prophesy in proportion to our faith.

MINISTRY is also a gift. It is a special spiritual privilege to serve with the gift that God has given to us and in using that gift, Paul admonished to use it well. If you read this portion in the Passion Translation, it says: “if your grace-gift is serving, then thrive in serving others well.” Did we see that? Other gifts mentioned in that passage are: TEACHING, EXHORTATION, GIVING, LEADING and MERCY.

Let me just read the rest of that Romans 12:7b-8 in the passion translations. It says:

“If you have the grace-gift of teaching, then be actively teaching and training others. ⁸ If you have the grace-gift of encouragement, then use it often to encourage others. If you have the grace-gift of giving to meet the needs of others, then may you prosper in your generosity without any fanfare. If you have the gift of leadership, be passionate about your leadership. And if you have the gift of showing compassion, then flourish in your cheerful display of compassion.”

Let us go to 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, the Bible says:

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: ⁸ for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit…” Notice it didn’t say ‘wisdom’, but word of wisdom. Now, let us break it down? What is a ‘word?’ Merriam-Webster defines ‘word’ as: saying something in a particular way by choosing which words to use. So, you are about to say something, but you carefully chose the words that you want to use that would rightly convey the information in a way and manner that the person hearing it would understand and be able to relate with. So, the gift of word of wisdom is simply communicating the counsel of God in such a way and manner that the Holy Spirit inspires you so that those who hear you would understand and be able to relate with what you just said, both physically and spiritually.

An example is this: you meet someone who is at the hedge of giving up in life, and maybe even contemplating suicide, and the Spirit of God allows you to counsel the person by the word of God and such a person changes his or her mind from that action, then you have spoken or displayed the gift of word of wisdom. Colossians 4:6 says: “let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt [what is the function of a salt? It preserves, right], that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” So, this is exactly what the word of wisdom does.

The next one says: “to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit…” please, just apply the same principle as to the word of wisdom in this place as well, even though wisdom and knowledge aren’t the same thing. But the same principle applies. The word of knowledge talks about having a supernatural knowledge of things or events that had taken place. Now, Jesus Himself demonstrated this gift in two places in the book of John 4:16-19, and John 5:5-7.

“Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” ¹⁹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

“Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” ⁷ The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

verse 9 says: “to another faith by the same Spirit…” Now, the gift of faith here is somewhat on a higher pedestal than the regular knowledge of faith that we know. The gift of faith here talks about the ability to trust God for something that is seemingly or somewhat impossible. Luke 7:1-9, the Bible says:

“Now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. ² And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. ³ So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant. ⁴ And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, ⁵ “for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.” ⁶ Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. ⁷ Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁸ For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” ⁹ When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”

 

To be continued!

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

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